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Terrorism
Terrorism (general) :What is a terrorist? A terrorist is one who meets five criteria: 1. Is a member of an association or individual not under the command of a recognized military force or nation/state 2. deliberately targets 3. a civilian population 4. through physical violence and/or the psychological impact of violence 5. so as to obtain by coercion what he/she could not obtain by persuasion. All five elements must exist for an act to be defined as terrorism. Note that the civilian population need not be the target of the violence, but can instead be the targetted audience of violence. For example, releasing a videotape of a police officer's beheading qualifies as terrorism, whereas beheading a police officer without videotape and burying him does not. Likewise, the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole without videotape is not terrorism. It was the videotape that shows terrorist intent. One might ask, what about suicide bombing? A suicide bombing is a media event. This is known to all organizations that perform such acts, and that is why the organizations typically record the suicide bomber's last words before the act is done, with the intent of influencing their own population to fight. On the other hand, the University of Oklahoma student who blew himself up outside a football game http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2178416 without leaving a note or videotape explaining his actions didn't commit an act of terrorism, though it had a terrifying effect. Even if he'd blown himself up inside the stadium, his act could only be called mass murder with presumed terroristic intent, not proven terrorism, as element 4 was not publicly satisfied. Terrorism overemphasized Terrorism is by no means a leading cause of death in the U.S., however it recieves a disproportionate level of attention and funding. Some arguments to this effect: * You are four times more likely to be murdered on your vacation to Mexico than die due to American troop actions, insurgency, or crime combined (iraq deaths,mexico murders), yet there's not a day that goes by that you don't hear about terrorism in Iraq. And how many news stories are there about murders in Mexico? * When compared to other leading issues on Google Trends, such as higher education, it appears as if people in Washington DC are disproportionatly interested in terrorism, and news coverage is disproportionate in relation to actual interest. This may be because Washington itself is at high risk of an attack, or maybe because fear politics work so well for the people in charge there. * One is much more likely to be injured in a traffic accident than from acts of terrorism. The level of comfort you feel in a car is largely due to ignoring the dangers you are facing every second on the road. If we felt the same way about driving as we felt about terrorism, we'd have fifteen feet tall concrete barriers between lanes and have checkpoints every five miles to make sure you have correct documentation. The fear of terrorism is irrational, fueled by shocking events broadcast in full-color TV. Furthermore, fear is a great thing--it means you're still free. * Terrorism is as old as anything else on this planet. Yet it is used to create fear (not only by those who commit it), and make people accept certain changes in their system, such as limiting your civil rights, or exceeding judicial powers. * Hurricanes are also not the lead cause of death in US, but they got more attention than let's say car accidents. Also violent crimes get more attention than car accidents, all this is within the normal media coverage choices, it also depends on the demand from the public. There's no need to judge media when it is the public who wants to get info about the terrorism. Terrorism is not overemphasized While terrorism has only effected a small portion of the public, it is always this way. It is never meant to harm large parts of a population, but instead is designed to instill fear and panic. It therefore cannot be overemphasized because it is so dangerous, even in small amounts it can be destructive to a society. Some arguments to this effect: * The whole point of terrorism is to scare people. If it didn't scare anybody it wouldn't be terrorism. Terrorism=terror+ism. terror means "Extreme or intense fear."http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/terror * Terrorism is inherently an evil act of a small number of people. Governments and people need to be vigilant against it, even as they safeguard their liberties. * Terror can be a cancer on a society that must be dealt with, not ignored, otherwise it will grow. * Terrorists hope their actions go unnoticed, and are relying on people and their governments to not take precautions against thier heinous deeds. * Governments would be delelict in their duty if they did not warn people of impending dangers and share known remedies for them * Like all messages, the message against the threat of terrorism must be repeated over and over. This isn't a sinister plot to scare the public, but is done for the same reason cat food commercials are repeated over and over: repeated messages are more likely to be remembered http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0093-5301(198209)9%3A2%3C200%3ABEOTEO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-7 Perspectives (Share your feedback about this section's format/content on the discussion page!) As a way of starting a deeper conversation around Terrorism, please post your "Perspective" below. This will give us a clear structure for looking at all the diverse and interesting perspectives we all hold. Each Perspective should be formatted as follows: "I am _______, and I believe _______." EXAMPLE: "I am a student, and I believe we should focus on non-violent intervention." EXAMPLE: "I am a businessman, and I believe that we need to protect our financial assets with any means necessary." EXAMPLE: "I am a teacher, and I believe that educating our youth about other cultures and religions would decrease our tendency to judge." Let's keep this civil, thoughtful and friendly... and have fun! What's YOUR perspective? ''Remember to "sign" your comment with four tildes. Please keep responses & comments in the Discussion area. Perspectives should only be formatted in the way described above.: "I am ____, I believe ____. Thanks!' * I'm a Nazi and I believe that liberal democratic governments do not recognize points of view other than their own, thus forcing impoverished or small groups of dissidents to commit acts of terror like the tactically brilliant strike on New York City on September 11, 2001.Nazi 19:12, 9 July 2006 (UTC) *I'm a spiritual teacher in Southern California, and I believe that the way to peace involves finding a way to bring topics of our diverse spirituality into civil conversations, so that we can better understand each other.75.24.182.141 21:13, 6 July 2006 (UTC) :: *I'm an engineer from England, and I believe that we should mourn the dead, clear up the damage, ask the perpetrators why they did it, and then be mindful of that in the future--81.129.17.110 21:44, 6 July 2006 (UTC) :: * I'm a junior doctor from England, and I believe the 7th July 2005 attack on London seemed to do the opposite of its intent: it brought out the best in people and made people determined not to change. http://citizensagainstterror.net/149 Ashre 22:48, 6 July 2006 (UTC) :: * I'm a student from Oklahoma, and I believe that all the hype about the government infringing on our rights in order to protect terrorism is a false dilemma. The will of the average, ordinary sheeple always overcomes the will of its government, if only at the next election. Compaqdrew 00:35, 7 July 2006 (UTC) :: * I'm a technician in southern California, and I believe that terrorist acts will continue until it is shown to be ineffective. The best way to achieve this is by refusing to bend to their demands, root them out, and imprison them. Give them and inch, and they will demand a mile. :: * I am a student from Oklahoma, and I believe that we must not do what the terrorists want us to do, which is self destruct. Terrorism will always exist, and the purpose of terrorism is the reaction to the act, not the act itself. If Americans and free people around the world went on with their lives and were not willing to give an inch of freedom up, the terrorists could never win. --Bobcobb 17:29, 7 July 2006 (UTC) :: * I am a U.S. citizen who is privately concerned about U.S. foreign policy formulation and I believe that we so far have failed to identify the distinguishing factor between a wikipedia:rogue state, which might be accused of sponsoring terrorism and any Western nation, such as my own country, that has forcibly conveyed its covert agents (and later its armies) to foreign lands. Please discuss as to whether such Western nations are immune from such accusations. -- 75.24.106.107 21:40, 7 July 2006 (UTC) :: *i am a middle school student from access, and i believe we have to understand a problem to fix it (though i agree there will always be terrorism). the only way to do this is to realize that these people are human, and have a reason for doing what they do. the media coins them as reasonless, evil and inhuman-'they do it cause they hate our freedom' but the only way to combat this problem is to realize that that is simply not true. --Broomfighter 22:26, 7 July 2006 (UTC) :: *I am a university student from Chile, and I believe that terrorism is a term that has some political connotation to it. These days, governments use the threat of 'terrorism' as an excuse to conduct violent foreign policies (like invading other countries). The fear of terrorism is much greater that the threat it actually poses, and this is used to justify wars on sovereign nations. Also, terrorism itself shows hatred, and that hatred must have a reason. Western countries should review their relationships with middle eastern culture, and try to fix the problem at its root: if terrorists are willing to commit theses acts, then we have done something to make them hate us. Waldsen 03:18, 8 July 2006 (UTC) External links *Wikipedia entry for War by Proxy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_by_proxy *Wikipedia entry for Asymetrical Warfare http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asymetric_warfare *Wikipedia entry for Freedom Fighters http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_fighters *Citizens Against Terror http://citizensagainstterror.net Category:International_affairs Category:Terrorism